1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope system.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-250823, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In the related art, there is a known method for generating an image with a wide field of view, a so-called map image, by combining a plurality of neighboring partial images (for example, see Japanese Translation of PCT International Application, Publication No. 2001-519944). In Japanese
Translation of PCT International Application, Publication No. 2001-519944, by associating a group of other partial images acquired at higher magnification with the map image, the location of the high-magnification images can be pinpointed from the map image.
However, a drawback with the method disclosed in Japanese Translation of PCT International Application, Publication No. 2001-519944 is that it takes time to generate the map image and a large storage capacity is required because it is necessary to acquire partial images over the entire observable region to generate the map image, thus acquiring partial images even in regions where a specimen does not exist. In particular, a laser-scanning microscope of the type that acquires images by scanning laser light suffers from the drawback that it is not possible to generate a map image quickly because it takes time to acquire images compared with a case where an image-acquisition device such as a CCD is used to acquire images of the specimen.